2015 Giro d'Italia Preview: Stage 19

The end might be near, but Stage 19 of the 2015 Giro is going to be a very tough day in the saddle indeed, running 236kms from Gravellona Toce to Cervinia.

A break should be able to form early on, but a cat-3 climb—Croce Serra—at around 80kms may dampen some of their momentum.

The first intermediate sprint lies in the valley beneath while the second sprint occurs on the uncategorized climb in Fenis.

From here on out, the break is going to have a very tough time as anyone seeking to make up time on GC, try to win a stage, or hoping to snag some KOM points will be very active 70 kms with three cat-1 climbs: Saint Barthelemy, the Col Saint-Pantaleon, and the concluding climb to Cervinia which has an average 5% gradient but can hit up to 12% at times.

Anyone hoping to win this stage is going to have to climb hard and attack smart! But for some, the goal will just to be to limit time loss.